tsk-tsk

[determined]

We had been getting calls wanting info on our power bill usually they ask to speak to "the person in charge of our NIPSCO bill" and I would just say they weren't here but the other day I told them it was me. She started off asking me to get my power bill ect, I asked what it was about and she said something about a rebate/refund that the account was intitled to but they needed the account number to "confirm it". Told her I didn't give my account info out and if we were due something to just please send it. She insisted that she couldn't do that without the number, said something about an insert in with the bill, told her that I would have to look, discuss it with my husband and then would call NIPSCO myself to find out about it, she hung up real fast and we havent heard from them again. I hate the ones that are a recording and take up the answering machine, "We have important information for you please press to continue."

[Maude]

Those creeps try anything. I haven't had the power bill tried on me yet but I have had a call from my bank telling me that I had some money deposited into my account. They sounded very convincing but I worked in the Bank for many years and knew that they didn't work that way.

Nalani, I tried the phone company a few years ago. I had been getting lots of calls at all times day or night. When I answered, there was nobody there, just silence. As I live alone it was quite upsetting so I kept a check of the calls and when I had a list I rang the phone company. They were able to see that the calls were from o'seas and there was nothing that they could do. They believed that I was on some list or other and were going to try something which may or may not work. I believe that it worked for a while and I now never get silence at the other end. The police here give out warnings but there are still a lot of people getting caught. I feel pretty secure but it annoys me because it is not the world that we grew up in. I have always trusted people and it saddens me to have to distrust others.

[determined]

Just read a thing on the scams and it seems that some of them are so good they have duped people of all social classes and one of them even duped a lawyer

One of the ones that has hit a couple people around here, even with the police warnings is someone calls an older person claiming to be a friend of their grandchild, who has ran into some legal problems in Canada and is now in jail and needs X amount to get bailed out.

A few years ago I got into it with a couple of guys selling alarm systems, afterwards my neighbor was laughing at me, he was sitting in his backyard listening. I told them when they walked up that I had an alarm system and no they couldn't put their sign in my yard, and no I wasn't telling them the name of my system. They said they didn't see a sign and I told them I wasn't advertising to let the crooks know what I had so they knew how to get around it. They then wanted to know if it went to a call center or directly to the police and how long it took the police to answer the call to which I replied "it doesn't matter how long it takes them, I have a 9mm pistol and pit bull to take care of things until the police get here" , read in the paper where people were "selling" alarm systems to mark houses to rob.

[Nalani]

One thing I do with caller ID, if it is an 800 # or some strange area code I don't know I will just press 'end call'. I have been able to block some 20 calls this way. Wish I could block more calls but my phone only lets me block 20. Phone will ring once then end as they are blocked.

[determined]

We have the call block but have to go on-line (I think) to do it as it is through the cable company and not built into our phone. Problem is that we can't block all "800" numbers have to block them each seperate. I usually don't answer if I don't know the number. We have alot of people calling for Henry Butler, he must owe a bunch of places money . Had some woman who was giving out our number as hers to colleges.